Guide to LotRO's Draigoch's Lair

There is one fantasy staple that never gets old: good
old-fashioned dragon-slaying. In some games, dragons are a dime a
dozen, and you kill dozens of them shortly after you are done
killing rats in the sewers, skeletons in the graveyard and goblins
in the ruins. In the
Lord of the Rings Online
, there are currently only
two, and of those two, Draigoch is the more
archetypical fire-breathing death-tyrant.

The quest chain to slay Draigoch first becomes available at level
75. It starts in Galtrev, in the heart of
Dunland, and requires heading back to Enedwaith. Just past the
gwiber area at the bottom of Nar's Peak, you
will find an area patrolled by level 75 Dunlendings - this is the
path to the dragon's mountain lair. On the Enedwaith map, you can
see the lair at 67.2S, 6.6W - it's the grey dragon shape in the
crook in the mountains there.

LotRO Draigoch's Lair - location in Enedwaith

When you have discovered the location and unlocked the raid,
gather up 11 or 23 friends and head in. Be warned - this raid
takes a while. It is a single-mob fight, but that mob has almost
10 million morale. An average run using all the fellowship
manoeuvres in the right sequence takes just over an hour. If the
FMs are not used, it can take closer to 2 hours.

Preparation

There is not a whole lot of preparation you need to do for this
raid. Draigoch doesn't apply any big debuffs like other raid
bosses, so you won't even need to bring curative potions. You will
need to bring lots of morale and power potions, though, and any
class consumables you normally use for raids. Much of the damage
you suffer in the dragon's lair is common/physical, but the breath
attacks are fire-based, which can be mitigated by boosting
Tactical Defense. Fire attacks are much less common than the
physical attacks and most players shouldn't need to worry about
them if things are going right. There are also lots of pauses
between combat, and healers will often be very busy, so increasing
non-combat morale and power regeneration will help a lot - use the
Destiny perk if you can.

For group makeup, this raid requires one main tank and one
off-tank, and one healer who only heals the tanks - a Captain
can keep up with healing duties for this, but a Minstrel
or Rune-keeper works well and is generally
preferred. The off-tank can be a Captain, Champion,
Warden or Guardian - basically
whatever is available. Captains work well in any role up here, and
are handy to have for their two in-combat revives. The tanks and
their "pocket healers" will spend a large portion of the fight
separated from the rest of the raid, and a third healer is needed
to keep the other 7 guys in fighting form. The group also needs at
least one Burglar who can reliably trigger
Fellowship Manoeuvers. The remaining 7 positions are flexible.

This raid is Hunter-friendly - there's really
no way to steal aggro from the tanks, and Hunters can stay in
Strength stance for the entire fight. If you bring one Hunter,
though, you'll need to bring a second to even things out - each
group needs to have a Hunter with the same non-combat run speed
buff, otherwise they risk lagging behind during the runs to the
different positions. Because the claws do distributed area-effect
damage, you want to spread it across as many people as possible so
that front-liners don't get 1-shotted. DPS classes can be as
aggressive as they please. If the healing situation is handled,
Rune-keepers can go all-out DPS.

The groups need to be divided in a fairly specific way:

Tank Group FM Group
Main Tank Burglar
Main Tank's Healer Healer
Off-tank Hunter (with +21% Find The Path run speed from LI legacy)
Off-tank's Healer DPS
Hunter (with +21% Find The Path run speed from LI legacy) DPS
6th guy (DPS) DPS

This is for the 12-person Tier II challenge-mode version. It is
also possible to run this raid with a full 24-person raid using
these same strategies. The 24-person version is faster and easier,
and for group makeup, the remaining 12 spots can be pretty much
all DPS with one or two spots reserved for healers.

Getting Into Position

"Welcome, thieves. I can smell the dread in your sweat.
I hear the whistle of fear in your breath and feel the fluttering
of your little hearts as they race in your chests. But come now,
why do you fear? There is plenty of treasure here...enough for
all, and more to spare." - Draigoch the Red

The entrance to Draigoch's lair is a winding switchback tunnel
with ominous openings in the inside wall. This part of the raid is
possibly the most dangerous, and you're not even fighting yet. The
dragon will peek his head through the holes around the walls of
his cave, and if he sees anyone in the tunnel, he will incinerate
them with dragon-fire.

LotRO Draigoch's Lair - path from entrance with fire zones marked

The blue line is the switchback path. The yellow rays are the
fire zones. You can tell where he is looking by the rays of light
shining through the holes - keep your distance from them, and
don't stand on any of the gold piles near the holes. The gold gets
cooked, and so does anyone touching them.

LotRO Draigoch's Lair - eye rays

He positions himself randomly while he is searching, so if you
are blocked by the eye-rays, wait a moment for him to move and
then charge through. In the third tunnel, you will actually see
his giant, fanged snout and glowing eyes peeking through.
Fortunately, Draigoch has tunnel-vision, so if you're standing
next to his head he won't see you. This is beneficial when you
reach the end of the switchbacks and make it to the platform
overlooking his chamber. You can stand on the platform right next
to his giant head and watch him frantically search the tunnels.

LotRO Draigoch's Lair - Draigoch searching the tunnels

Next to the platform, you'll see a flat circle on the floor. This
circle collapses when 6 people stand on it, and you fall through
into a giant pile of gold. The gold here cushions your fall so you
don't break a leg from the drop. From here, you will move to the
southwest corner to a glowing chest, on a ledge jutting out into
the cavern. This is where the fight starts - at Position A in the
Crude Illustration:

Draigoch's Lair - tunnels and fight locations

The main tank and pocket-healer will remain at Position A, and
the rest of the raid will move to position A-1. Draigoch is one of
the largest creatures in the game, and for most of the fight,
you'll only be able to fight one piece of him at a time - the
head, which stays at the top layer, or the individual claws, which
poke into openings in the inside walls of the lower tunnels. This
maze of tunnels can be confusing at first but, once you learn the
layout, it gets easier. In the illustration, the 3 levels are
represented by concentric rings - the outermost is the top layer,
and the innermost represents the bottom ring running around the
floor of the cavern. In actuality, the layers are one on top of
the other and not concentric rings, and the connecting tunnels
criss-cross and wind back around, but that is difficult to convey
in a 2-D illustration.

Positions A, B, C and D are ledges on the inside of the top ring
- this is where the tank will fight Dragioch's head. Lower
positions are reached by following the upper ring
counter-clockwise - the next downward ramp runs counter-clockwise
and leads to the lowest ring, and the second down ramp turns back
clockwise and leads down to the middle layer. The middle ring is
where the rest of the raid will fight the dragon's left and right
fore-claws. This level does not run all the way around - one end
connects to the upper ring, the other end to the lower ring. The
bottom ring is where the group fights the left and right lower
claws. Confused yet? Don't worry, it's not as hard as it sounds.
Just get the rest of the raid to position A-1, where they will
fight the Front Left Claw when the battle begins.

Phase One

"What's this? Come for your share of riches? Seek you
your place in history, as a slayer of dragons? Know you not who I
am? Allow me to introduce myself. I am DRAIGOCH! Long have I ruled
these lands. Ancient were my forebears, and many the ages that
have passed beneath my wings! Mighty was Smaug the Golden, brought
unto ruin by mischief and trickery, and still I, I persist! My
fire burns bright as ever! Come then, wretched fools. You death is
at hand. Here, let me give it to you!" - Draigoch the
Red

The tank will use the treasure chest, which will activate
Draigoch. The great, talkative dragon will go into a long-winded
introduction, letting everyone know how bad-ass and awesome he is
and how insignificant the invaders are.

The tank will stay out on the ledge, and his pocket-healer will
tuck in safely behind the wall, keeping the tank in healing range
but staying out of range of the giant head. All the tank has to do
here is keep the head busy and hold its attention. The head
doesn't need to be killed, just kept busy. As long as the healer
stays out of line of sight, this shouldn't prove all that
challenging. There is a similar safe-spot for healers at each of
the four ledges - usually marked by a treasure chest or gold pile.

LotRO Draigoch's Lair - ledge for tank & healer

The rest of the raid waits at position A-1 to fight the Front
Left Claw. The claws do an area-effect attack that is distributed
among the raiders in range. If only one or two people are within
the attack range of the claws, they can get 1-shotted, so the
group needs to stay clustered up to distribute the damage evenly.
Everyone in the claw group needs to soak up some damage or the
front-liners start dying, so cluster up close. When this claw is
defeated, move to position A-2 and fight the Front Right Claw,
then to A-3 for the Lower Right Claw, then to A-4 for the Lower
Left Claw, as per the Crude Illustration:

Draigoch's Lair - tunnels

The reason for this pattern (top first, bottom after) is that
after all four claws are defeated, Draigoch falls to the ground in
the middle of the chamber. If you're fighting a lower claw, you
can get in there faster and take advantage of the full 80-second
span of his vulnerability. If you finish on a front claw, you have
to run down the ramps to get into the central chamber, losing
precious seconds.

During Phase One, claw fights are lengthy and slow, and Draigoch
may switch positions before the group defeats all four claws. The
claw will become unattackable, and the tank will be able to see
where the dragon moves to and follow it there - he will move
either left (clockwise) or right (counter-clockwise), one
position. In other words, from Position A, he will move to either
Position B or Position D, but not to Position C across the room.
When Draigoch moves, the tank will call out "left" or "right," and
the claw group will move accordingly, moving to the same relative
spot in the next position.

Another hazard to watch for in the claw fights is the fire
"puddle" that will appear at one of the claws. This puddle will
appear randomly at one of the claws after each fly-up, and melee
characters will want to skirt around it when fighting that claw.
If it's not possible to skirt around the fire, that claw will have
to be ranged down. It is usually possible to dodge around the
fire, though.

The tank and the healer have to move quickly, ideally before
Dragioch shouts to announce his intentions - when he moves, he
fills the top hallway with fire around the spot where the tank was
fighting the head. As soon as the head becomes unattackable, the
tank and his pocket healer need to bail, keeping an eye on which
direction Dragioch is heading, and get to the next position.

Example: Dragioch moves clockwise while
the group is fighting the Front Right Claw at A-2. The tank calls
out "left" and runs to position B to tank the head. The claw group
moves to position B-2, running down to the lowest ring and then up
the next ramp on the outside, and continues to battle the Front
Right Claw until it is defeated.

When all four claws are defeated, Dragioch will fall to the
middle of the cavern. Wait for him to finish falling before
running in, or you could get crushed and killed. When he lands,
the claw group runs in and attacks the body. This is a full-on
burn - use your cooldowns and do as much damage as you can.

Fellowship Manoeuvres

This is also the part where Burglars play an important role by
triggering Fellowship Manoeuvres. There's a new
mechanic in this fight for FMs - if the group does the right ones
in the right order, they apply debuffs that last the entire fight,
making it easier as the fight continues. The group has 80 seconds
to do damage and land as many FMs as possible - if the group is
experienced and quick, you can get 3 per ground battle, as there
is a 20-second immunity after the FM lands. Since the tanks stay
up top during this stage, they should not be in the FM-trigger
group.

The raid leader will assign everyone in the FM group a number,
and that player must hit the right color when his number comes up.
The raid leader then sets the FMs by posting the color order in
raid chat. These special FMs use only red and yellow, so when your
number comes up, be prepared to hit your color.

Example: Raid leader sets the order -
"1 - Stan, 2 - Kyle, 3 - Cartman, 4 - Butters, 5 - Timmy, 6 -
Kenny". The scheduled FM is YRYRYR - Stan hits Yellow, Kyle hits
Red, Cartman hits Yellow, Butters hits Red, Timmy hits Yellow,
Kenny hits Red. That one lands, and the raid leader sets the next
FM - RRYRYY. Stan hits Red, Kyle hits Red, Cartman hits Yellow,
Butters hits Red, Timmy hits Yellow, Kenny hits Yellow.

It may help to make a bunch of FM-order macros - use the /alias
feature, /shortcuts in unused quickslots, or programmable macro
keys.

  • To set up an /alias macro, the command is /alias (;command)
    (action) - for example, /alias ;fm1 /ra RYYYYR. When the raid
    leader types ;fm1 in chat, "RYYYYR" will come up in the raid
    channel.
  • To set up a /shortcut, free up 12 quickslots and use the
    command /shortcut (quickslot number) (action) - for example,
    /shortcut 13 /ra RYYYYR. This will give you a clickable "skill"
    in quickslot 13 (first slot on bar 1) that will automatically
    type "RYYYYR" in the raid channel.
  • If you have a gaming keyboard with macro keys, the macro text
    will be [ENTER] /ra RYYYYR [ENTER]

There are 3 sets of FMs, each with 4 manoeuvers, for a total of
12. For the first set, each successful FM will debuff one of the
claws, causing it to take +100% incoming melee damage and +50%
incoming ranged and tactical damage. These debuffs are permanent,
and when all four land, the claw fights will go much faster.

1. Just A Flesh Wound

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style="font-weight: bold;">

class="fmred">

src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/201011" alt="RED" />

2. First Blood

src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/201012" alt="YELLOW" />

style="font-weight: bold;">

alt="YELLOW" />

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alt="YELLOW" />

alt="YELLOW" />

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alt="RED" />

3. Surgical Strike

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alt="RED" />

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class="fmyel">

4. A Slight Sting

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src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/201011" alt="RED" />

style="font-weight: bold;">

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With the second set, each FM applies a stackable +25% incoming
melee damage / +12.5% incoming ranged & tactical damage debuff
to the dragon's body. When all four land, the body takes +100%
incoming melee and +50% incoming ranged & tactical damage,
making the ground fights go faster.

1. Exposed

alt="RED" />

alt="YELLOW" />

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2. A Snail Out Of Its Shell

src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/201012" alt="YELLOW" />

style="font-weight: bold;">

alt="RED" />

alt="YELLOW" />

alt="RED" />

alt="YELLOW" />

alt="RED" />

3. Deep Wound

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alt="RED" />

alt="YELLOW" />

alt="YELLOW" />

4. A Chink In Their Armour

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style="font-weight: bold;">

alt="YELLOW" />

alt="RED" />

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alt="RED" />

alt="RED" />

For the third set, each successful FM takes away 5% of the
dragon's maximum morale. When all four land, that's 20% of ~9.8
million = about 1,960,000 morale blasted away by the sheer power
of coordination.

1. The Sound of Inevitability

src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/201011" alt="RED" />

style="font-weight: bold;">

alt="RED" />

alt="YELLOW" />

alt="YELLOW" />

alt="RED" />

alt="RED" />

2. Twisting The Dagger

alt="YELLOW" />

alt="RED" />

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alt="RED" />

alt="RED" />

alt="YELLOW" />

3. Sudden Death

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alt="YELLOW" />

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alt="YELLOW" />

alt="RED" />

4. Stroke Of Midnight

alt="RED" />

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alt="YELLOW" />

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alt="YELLOW" />

After 80 seconds, Draigoch will recover himself and fly back to
the walls, always returning to Position A in the southwest corner.
Get back into the tunnels and resume fighting the claws. Rinse and
repeat as needed - you will need to engage him in ground battles a
few times to force him into the next phase - his phase changes are
based on morale thresholds. Ideally, you will want to get the
first 6 FMs off during Phase One to make the consecutive phases go
faster.

In the 12-man challenge-mode version, only one group will need to
worry about triggering FMs - the group with the Burglar and no
tanks. This is fairly easy to manage in terms of assigning spots,
but the one Burglar will have to make every FM count - Exploit

Opening, Trip and thrown Bags

of Marbles will need to be ready for each fight. In a
24-man raid with multiple Burglars, three groups will need to be
managed, but the raid leader can cycle through the available
Burglars if one of them misses on a FM attempt.

Phase Two

When Draigoch reaches the morale threshold, the battle music
changes and he shouts, "Scatter then, rats, hide in your maze!"
This signals the transition to Phase Two, and when this happens,
the off-tank needs to get up to the top layer. The off-tank has a
fairly boring job - he's the insurance policy against one of Phase
Two's more challenging aspects - the dragon dekes and head-fakes
when he changes position, and tanks can be fooled when determining
where he is moving.

It is important for the tanks to be able to pick up aggro on the
head as quickly as possible - when Draigoch has no target for his
flaming wrath, he takes it out on the entire cavern, causing
cave-ins. These cave-ins do around 770 damage per 2 seconds to
everyone in the tunnels, so the tanks need to get aggro on the
head as quickly as possible.

One way to do this is to position the two tanks on opposite sides
of the room, and have them move consistently clockwise (or
counter-clockwise) after each position change. As long as they are
on opposite sides and always move both in the same direction,
there will always be one tank in position to pick up the aggro of
the head when it is time. The healer will have time to get to the
proper spot without much fuss, even if he has to run all the way
around the ring. This is kind of boring for the person not tanking
the head - he will just hold his position and watch the dragon's
movements, and be ready to move to the next spot.

When the cave-ins happen, the claw group needs to huddle
together, against the outside walls and away from the claws, and
keep themselves alive. This part of the fight is kind of
interesting - the group can suffer a near-total wipe and still
have a chance to complete the instance, provided the healers can
keep themselves alive. There are long moments where the group is
not in combat, and healers can take this time to revive them as
long as they are still alive and kicking. If the entire claw group
dies except the healer, no big deal. Rez 'em and keep going.
Ideally, the claw group will have loads of morale, self-heals and
potions at their disposal and will be able to withstand the
cave-in damage until the tanks manage to pick up head-aggro. The
healers just need to focus on keeping themselves alive.

Other than these two things, Phase Two is basically the same as
Phase One - tank the head, burn the claws, engage in a ground
battle and trigger FMs when Draigoch falls. If the group manages
to pull off all 12 FMs in the sequence by the end of this phase,
the last stage will go much smoother and quicker.

Phase Three

The final stage, where the dragon begins to recognize his peril,
is indicated when Draigoch shouts, "Cowards! Stand and fight me!"
Everyone, tanks and all, drop down into the main chamber and fight
a ground battle on the big bed of gold coins.

During this phase, the claws still do distributed AoE damage, and
the claw group is still the claw group. The main tank still needs
to take care of the head, but this time the head is in a position
where it can hurt people that get too close. The tank needs to
stay in front of the face, and the claw group needs to attack the
claws from behind, but keeping in a fairly tight cluster so the
area-effect damage is distributed evenly.

Dragioch is huge- seriously massive, so big that screenshots will
mostly show only a part of his body, and so enormous that his
every step causes the entire cavern to quake. When the cave
quakes, everybody hops and inductions are interrupted. These
quakes happen often, so be prepared to be frustrated if you use a
lot of long-induction skills.

During this phase, he will shout "My breath is death and your
lives are but a trifle in my presence," and will then fly up and
create a flaming, coin-flying storm. When he shouts, the group
needs to run to the spot where his tail was to avoid the flames -
it is marked by a shadowy "cool spot" in the coins. Eventually, he
will land, and he will be rotated 90 degrees, either clockwise or
counter-clockwise, from his previous position. The tank needs to
run back in and pick up the head again, and the claw group needs
to get back to work disabling the feet.

Be careful heading back in to engage him after a fly-up. Some of
the coins are burning from his breath attacks and leave lingering
hot-spots that can do serious damage to anyone running through
them. Watch for the brighter patches of coins and don't step in
them.

When all four claws are disabled, he will be grounded again, and
everyone in the raid can attack his body. If the full sequence of
12 FMs has been successfully completed, this should go much faster
than it did in previous phases.

When you finally manage to bring Draigoch's morale down to zero,
he goes into his final soliloquy. Get out of the central chamber
as quickly as possible, because he means to take everyone out with
him when he goes. He rants and raves about how he will claim a
victory even in the face of clear defeat, and he flies up to the
cavern's roof, pulling it down. You don't want to be caught in
Draigoch's death throes, so go hang out in the tunnels until he
makes his final grand exit.

Loot Time!

"To the last, wretches, even in death, I shall not be
bested! With my last breath, I will make ashes of you! With my
demise, you will know the crushing weight of your failure...
Mightiest am I, and mightiest shall I remain! None shall face me
and live! To the last." - Draigioch the Red's final
words

If this is your first time beating Draigoch on Tier 2 difficulty,
and successfully complete all 12 FMs in the sequence, you will
complete the following deeds and receive their rewards:

Draigoch's Lair, Tier 1 - Title: Bathed in Fire;
Ornate Heritage Rune of Knowledge (167500 item XP); 10 Turbine
Points

Draigoch's Lair, Tier 2 - Title: Born From
Ashes; Greater Scroll of Empowerment; 10 Turbine Points

Draigoch's Lair, Challenge - Title: Manoeuvre
Master; Fused Deep Relics (Tier 7 relics); 10 Turbine Points

Draigoch the Red (3 of 3) - Title: the Red; Worn
Symbol of Celebrimbor; 10 Turbine Points

In other words, for completing the challenge the first time, you
automatically get the rare item you need to make a level 75
legendary item, increase its max level to 70, level it up a bit
and slot a Tier 7 relic in it. And if you're lucky on your rolls
(or have DKP to burn), you can make 2 of them. You also get 6
Superior Fourth Marks, which puts you well on your way toward
buying a new piece of raid armor from the vendor in Galtrev.

Additionally, there will be up to 3 more Worn Symbols of
Celebrimbor in the chests. There are also up to 4 barter tokens
for the new raid armor helmet and/or shoulders, a handful of teal
items (armor, off-hand weapons, jewellery, shields), and a bundle
of relics and item XP runes. Additionally, there will be a handful
of Draigoch Scales, used by Tailors to make one of four
orange-named level 75 cloaks.

LotRO Draigoch's Lair - Wyrmscale Blademaster's Cloak LotRO Draigoch's Lair - Wyrmscale Wizard's Cloak
LotRO Draigoch's Lair - Wyrmscale Blademaster's Cloak stats LotRO Draigoch's Lair - Wyrmscale Wizard's Cloak stats
LotRO Draigoch's Lair - Wyrmscale Acrobat's Cloak LotRO Draigoch's Lair - Wyrmscale Protector's Cloak
LotRO Draigoch's Lair - Wyrmscale Acrobat's Cloak stats LotRO Draigoch's Lair - Wyrmscale Protector's Cloak stats

There is a second chest that everyone can loot for more relics,
runes and coin. Unfortunately, the mountains of gold coins, gems,
chests and other riches lying scattered around the lair are not
lootable - likely fused solid now by the dragon's breath. But if
you feel like having a laugh, you can /groundroll around in it and
do your best Scrooge McDuck impression.

Many thanks to Khaurin, Ariahnnas and the good folks in Aesir!
Read about them in Understanding
LotRO Raiding Kinships with Aesir of Arkenstone


To read the latest guides, news, and features you can visit our Lord of the Rings Online Game Page.

Last Updated: Mar 13, 2016

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